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A "Radiation" Question

lkchris

Active member
Sorry, just not enough electronically savvy to understand this.

My BMW Airflow jacket has a pocket labled for cellphone and touted as "radiation shielded." Labeled "no radiation," actually.

Hard for me to know what this means and why I need it, as I don't think my phone is at risk or otherwise often affected when I'm not on my bike and/or not wearing this jacket.

Is this something to do with RF from ignition system, fuel pump, whatever?

My biggest question is does putting phone in this pocket block it from transmitting Bluetooth to, say, my Navigator IV? Well, first things first, does it block incoming phone signals? I frankly can't answer if there's a difference between "radiation" and whatever sort of radio signals are involved in cellular telephony and Bluetooth. To quote Lombardi, "what the **** is going on here?"

TIA for your insight on this.
 
Sounds like it protects it from any RF noise coming from anything in the electrical system or keeps it from interfering with the bikes electrical system. The only way to know for sure if it would block it from normal cell signals is to put it in the pocket and try to use it normally.

I've never had any RF radiation issues caused by a cell phone on any bike I've ever had.
 
My BMW Airflow jacket has a pocket labeled for cellphone and touted as "radiation shielded." Labeled "no radiation," actually.
Given that they labelled it FOR your cellphone, you can safely assume that the pocket's purpose isn't to prevent any "radiation" (since the radios in cellphone need to radiate to communicate). Rather, what you're likely dealing with is a pocket that has a bit of shielding on the body-side of the pocket to keep any RF from getting to your body... while still not blocking the "outbound" signal away from your body.

That said, the whole cellphones-give-you-cancer thing is a bit tinfoil-hat for me...
 
My guess is that the pocket has a shielding material that blocks radiation from things like cell phones and Ez-Pass's etc. When I picked up my EZ-Pass it included a shielded bag that you can use if you don't want it to work going through a toll area. Also it may block the ability for someone to scan anything with a magnetic strip inside your pocket such as credit cards. They sell all kinds of luggage, wallets etc. that have these shields. I guess a tech savvy crook can scan cards through a bag or a pocket if he/she can get close enough to them and use that information to steal from you.
 
Some marketing guy added this to the bullet points playing off the cell phone causing cancer scare, that was the news of the month a few years back. They probably lined the pocket with some fancy looking shiny fabric.
 
If the shielding is only on the "body" side of the pocket, it's to protect you (somewhat...) from radio frequency transmission energy from the phone; there are actually federal safety limits on how much energy at what distance is permitted to reach a body. Electrical and radio transmission energy does cause mutation of cells; how much/how often/how far has been debated for years.
If the pocket is entirely shielded, nothing gets in or out.

If you have a credit card with a little lightning bolt symbol on it, yes you should shield that, since it can be scanned by anybody nearby with a remote reader.
 
Given that they labelled it FOR your cellphone, you can safely assume that the pocket's purpose isn't to prevent any "radiation" (since the radios in cellphone need to radiate to communicate). Rather, what you're likely dealing with is a pocket that has a bit of shielding on the body-side of the pocket to keep any RF from getting to your body... while still not blocking the "outbound" signal away from your body.

That said, the whole cellphones-give-you-cancer thing is a bit tinfoil-hat for me...

^^This answer is the one I like best.

"Radiation" is a word applied to everything from radiating ripples from a stone dropped in a pond, to the deadly radiation from nuclear fuel.
My knowledge comes from listening to physicists arguing about dosage to be applied to flight electronics and is spotty at best.
Radiation can be crudely divided into 2 types. Ionizing, and non-ionizing.
Ionizing radiation knocks neutrons out of nuclei and produces isotopes which are fissile and have half lives.
That kind of radiation is to be avoided.
Non-ionizing radiation can't create isotopes and is far less damaging.
Cell phone radiation is non-ionizing, it's electromagnetic in nature and I don't worry about it but who knows, some people get an awful lot.

I think it's a cool feature to sew into a jacket but I wouldn't look for it as a feature.
 
There is the possibility that the manufacturer may have had pacemakers/internal defribrillators in mind when 'shielding' that pocket?!

Considering that there is more background radiation in a beer than an airport scanner*, I get a kick out of the bar patrons at major hubs that will buy several rounds of drinks while discussing the 'horror' of what they were just subjected to at the security checkpoint.

:banghead


* http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/around-us/doses-daily-lives.html
 
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